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Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
Mavis Leno, wife of “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, first learned about the Taliban’s abuse of Afghan women in 1997 when she joined the Feminist Majority Foundation board in the United States. That was four years before the 9/11 terrorist attacks that jolted the Western world awake to the dangers of the new regime. “This was getting virtually no coverage, no reporting of any kind at the time,” Leno said April 10, 2012, during a YWCA forum with U.S. Ambassador Barbara Barrett, the Interim President Designate at Thunderbird School of Global Management. “When I learned about it, I shot up out of my seat at the board meeting and said, ‘This is mine. I will tackle it.’” Since then Leno has asserted herself as an advocate for Afghan women. Barrett, who moderated the luncheon discussion, also has served as a champion for Afghan women through programs such as Project Artemis at Thunderbird. The event was part of the YWCA Maricopa County Women’s Empowerment Series at the Renaissance Downtown Phoenix. Watch the video or download the full audio podcast here. | Podcast: Campaign for Afghan Women (43:23)
People who view the Mideast uprisings as an “Arab Spring” are missing the broader significance of a global movement, U.S. Sen. John McCain said Aug. 29, 2011, at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. “I don’t think Arab Spring is the right name for it,” McCain said. “It obviously has spread throughout the Arab world and is still going on. But I would argue that it’s going on all over the world, not just in the Arab world.” McCain said the only comparable time in recent history might be the end of the Cold War and fall of the Soviet Union. “We live in a time when we should be most excited,” he said. “Never in history have so many hundreds of millions of people had an opportunity to experience freedom and democracy and an observance of human rights.” | 
Global companies must consider many factors besides science when thinking about sustainability, 
Critics who view emerging markets as a threat to the United States and other developed countries underestimate the power of free trade to create sustainable prosperity worldwide, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold President and CEO Richard C. Adkerson told Thunderbird graduates Dec. 17, 2010, in Glendale, Arizona. “In the United States many, if not most, people view free trade negatively,” Adkerson said during his keynote address. “You see it all the time in the media that free trade causes jobs to leave the United States and go overseas. In truth, if we can create relationships among the countries of the world that allow capital and resources and people to flow to the point where they can do things more efficiently, it creates value for everybody.” He said economic development in countries such as China and India causes dislocations elsewhere as a natural function of markets, but the process spurs innovation and drives growth worldwide. “It forces developed countries to become more competitive,” he said. “We have to learn how to do things that add more value than things moving overseas.” | 
Business journalists asked the wrong questions in the months leading up to the global financial crisis, 
The troubled world of global business needs an updated version of capitalism that bridges the gap between fiscal and social responsibility, recently retired Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Neville Isdell told Thunderbird graduates May 1 in Glendale, Ariz. “We need leaders who will help update capitalism for the challenges the world faces today,” Isdell said. Audio: 
Billionaire Warren Buffett stood in the New York Public Library in June 2006 and announced plans to give away most of his wealth. 
Profitable growth starts with employee engagement, Avnet Chairman and CEO Roy Vallee said March 19, 2009, at Thunderbird School of Global Management. He describes the “service value chain” that has become a primary focus at the Fortune 500 company based in Phoenix. “Engaged employees plus loyal customers equals profitable growth,” he says.
Ethical companies face disadvantages when competitors pay bribes and engage in bid rigging. Alan Boeckmann, chairman and CEO of Fluor Corp., watched the corruption in the engineering construction industry and decided to do something about it through the World Economic Forum. He talks Feb. 26, 2009, about the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative.
Jerre Stead got a call on Thanksgiving eight years ago. He was serving on the board of a large holding company that owned IHS, a Denver-based information solutions provider. Something was wrong at IHS, and Stead was asked to investigate. What he found was a culture of corruption that started at the top of the comany. What began as a two-day inquiry turned into an eight-year project for Stead, who is now chairman and CEO of the company that went public on Nov. 11, 2005. Stead talked Feb. 24, 2009, at Thunderbird about the process of bringing values-based leadership to IHS. Audio: 